WHAT A TRIP FOR OFFICER

Traffic Infraction Leads To Big Drug Haul

It was just one of those mornings for Rusty Herrera.

The 13-year veteran of the Pasadena Police Department started out thinking
he would just write a citation after finding a motorcycle parked in a fire
zone near an apartment complex.

But as he went through the routine steps, one thing just sort of led to
another, and what began as an innocuous little case became a very big one.

Charges were being prepared Friday against a 19-year-old Pasadena man after
laboratory tests showed that 12 bottles labeled as breath freshener actually
contained liquid LSD with a street value placed at $4.34 million.

Herrera, a former member of the department's gang task force now working as
a night patrolman, was honored Friday as the department's Officer of the Month.

Police would not release the suspect's name Friday because he is free on
bond and they did not want to alert him that he is again being sought. He
was charged after his June 28 arrest with possession of a controlled
substance because of other drugs found in his apartment, officers said.

Along with the drugs, police found a certificate showing that the man had
completed a drug rehabilitation program, Chief Tommy Shane said.

Herrera discovered the drugs after noticing the motorcycle in a fire zone on
a south Pasadena street. Police did not give the address.

After checking the license number in the computer and finding out where the
owner lived, Herrera knocked at the apartment door. When the occupant opened
it, Herrera smelled burning marijuana, police spokesman Sgt. J.M. Baird said.

The man signed a form consenting to a search of the apartment, Baird said,
and Herrera found a backpack containing the 12 small bottles of liquid,
along with other drugs and $1,200 in cash.

Police did not realize the significance of the drug seizure until laboratory
analysis determined recently that the liquid was LSD.

The amount seized was estimated to be 542,500 "hits," or doses, which
usually sell for $5 to $10 each on the street, Baird said.

The other drugs found in the backpack, he said, were various amounts of
marijuana, cocaine, crack cocaine, methamphetamine and ecstasy, a stimulant
chemically related to amphetamine and mescaline.